Farmed Animals Working Group

National Farmed Animal Health Strategy
(NFAHS)

October 31, 2007

Working Paper Summary Report

< STUDY ELEMENTS: DEFINITIONS

Table of Contents

CURRENT STATUS OF THE FARMED ANIMAL INDUSTRY >

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ISSUES FOR THE FARMED ANIMAL SECTOR

A list of farmed animal health issues for the farmed animal sector was prepared.

As had been suggested, a meeting with the Director of the NAHS group and the Director of the Animal Health and Production Division of the CFIA was held to examine the list.  It was decided whether specific issues would be addressed within the process of the NAHS, or if not, where the issue would be addressed.

The agreed response to the list of farmed animal health issues is,

	Farmed Animal Sector Issue	Responsibility
1.	Partnership between governments and stakeholders	NAHS
2	Governance and decision making	NAHS
3	Who are the decision making bodies	NAHS
4	Who are the stakeholders and who are their representatives	Farmed animal industry
5	How is research prioritized	NAHS
6	Human resource training within organizations	Each organization
7	Human resource succession planning within the animal health sector	Each organization
8	Prioritizing and decision making	NAHS under the topic of governance
9	Definition of public goods and private goods	NAHS
10	AAFC role in animal health	NAHS – financial only but open to discussion.
11	Influencing international standards	NAHS – under roles and responsibilities – contribute and support experts to committees and working groups
12	Consistency of requirements e.g. inter-province, inter-sector	Issue specific – depends on “the problem”
13	How to address current policy gaps	Gap specific – case by case, financial risk management is separate
14	Program development – from project to program	– program speCFIAcific
15	Networking for surveillance	NAHS
16	Adequacy of definitions	NAHS
17	Awareness campaign for Canadian animal health	Farmed animal industry, and AAFC for branding
18	Managing emerging programs	NAHS – governance
19	Coordinated emergency decision making	CFIA, governance system, business risk management of AAFC
20	Surveillance for the current OIE standard	Already being followed – CFIA for any deviations
21	Managing market collapse	Financial risk management – AAFC
22	Range of financial risk management tools	AAFC
23	Components of the animal health strategy	NAHS
24	Linkages beyond sector specific linkages	NAHS
25	Interdependencies – impact of a total shutdown of export markets	National Farm Products Agency financial risk management of AAFC
26	International linkages	already exists with the Quadrilateral Group of Australia, New Zealand,  USA, and Canada already exists with USA and Mexico exists with the European Union OIE by mandate is a science based organization
27	OIE country evaluation	will be done by self-assessment using the OIE – PVS Evaluation tool will be followed by an official request to OIE within two years.
28	What is the strategy	NAHS
29	What are the components of the strategy	NAHS
30	Veterinary equivalency agreements	CFIA with European Union only USA – too different because of state involvement Mexico – is not possible Australia and New Zealand – attempting this but difficult Brazil – for poultry only
31	Continental disaster plan	Public Safety Canada emergency planning group CFIA
32	Availability of professional expertise	Academic veterinary medical education – to be discussed in NAHS
33	Genetically modified organisms and genetically modified animals	Industry Canada Environment Canada little involvement for CFIA
34	Anti-microbial resistance	Public Health Agency of Canada
35	Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies	CFIA, Provincial wildlife, Environment Canada
36	Resources and resource management	NAHS
37	Ranking of animal species	Canadian Animal Health Coalition
38	How to determine which science is correct	National and international scientific experts consensus
39	How will NAHS be enforced	NAHS via action plans.

The above noted exercise has clarified which issues are scheduled to be discussed within the scope of the NAHS process.

It therefore behooves the farmed animal sector working group to develop collective opinions that best reflect the position of the sector to be introduced during the course of the NAHS process.